Target audience research

Target audience

I feel that the target audience for our music video is of a similar age to us and early twenties which is roughly the age of the original songwriter Ellie Goulding, hence why I believe it will relate to audiences these ages. As I have said in a previous post, I think it will be best to take a similar target audience because the music caters to the tastes of that age group. I feel that the stop animation/motion will appeal to those age groups as there are many films like Tim Burton’ s ‘Nightmare before Christmas’, ‘Corlaine’ and ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ which have had a loyal following of young audiences.   Popular indie artists like Goyte have also used stop motion in their music videos which although is popular and in the charts, is still different from the normal making the music video memorable which is what we aim to do.

 

For WEDNESDAY lesson

This lesson we have completed the shot list, and also the storyboard.


We have discussed our next meeting we will have a preliminary shoot to get a better idea of what our music video will end up looking like.

To do this i am taking the photographs of the actor,
-sitting on a bench
-standing up
-walking
-facial expressions - smiling, shocked
-pictures of her acting as a clock - flying position
-long shot of her standing up
-shocked face when she is dreamworld
-wind blowing her hair, lose up and mid shot so we can see which one looks best.
- lip syncing chorus (close ups and mid shots so we can alternate between the two.
- The wink face at the end.

Hannah is going to draw some preliminary animations to do the test footage, like the birds and a background in the way we would want the footage to look like so pictures will follow.

Rob is going to finish off the mood board by adding cut outs from magazines and newspapers.

'Thinking straight'

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This is how we want our line to look, with the lyrics actually being drawn in the line to relate to the lyrics without being boring or literal. Maybe drawing the line in stages using i-stop-motion will let us do this using the editing stages to make it more defined and professional if needs be.

Shot list

1. Mid shot- colour flashes to the beat. photographs will also change to the beat like pulling faces and wearing multiple colours as well.
2. zoom out SLOWLY, this shows her sitting on a bench, but getting up and starting to walk. this is when she starts to sing. 9photographs will give the illusion of walking).
3. 'faces staring right past me' back drop is a animated park, with benches and trees will floating heads following her, dreamworld.
4. 'feeling happy' this is the first time the bids appear. doves? again they will be animated, all white with black outlines.
5. 'hour and a half' acting as a clock, then when she gets to a certain position (looks like she is flying) this will be when the chorus starts and she starts to flying.
6. during the chorus, long shot of her in the clouds.
7. close ups of her face, smiling as she sings to the chorus.
8. the 2nd 'about it' is when she is back to reality put of her dreamworld, so the birds will place her on the floor like a puppet.
9. close up of her face, she will  be on a third at an angle. this will be when her hair will be swept out of her face like there is wind in her hair( train going  past effect)
10. zoom out and you realise she is flying as her hair would be the same anyway.
11. she would continue to fly 'sky will run out' she is flying but the background changes to just black.
12. 'thinking straight' heart beat line matching the beat of the music.
13. a love heart will be drawn in the line.
14. try will also be written in the line to literally match the lyrics.
15.  10 second instrumental, this is where on the black background we will re-create the scene but draw it on the black background, this shifts the focus to not just being on the actor and sets the scene for the next action.
16.'talk to people, they don't speak' close up of her face, a zip being drawn on the photograph.
17. mid shot of her singing the chorus so we have a little bit of lip syncing involved.
18. zoom out to see her sitting on a bench.
19. the birds appear and she winks.

Analsying music videos using Goodwins points

Beyonce  - Upgrade U

First of all it is a pop song, and straight away within the first 5 seconds there is reference to materialism, with all of the gold jewellery and the expensive car. I think it is very effective how they cut to the beat and mix it up with multiple close ups of the artist ( beyonce). There is reference to look when you can see her, but she is turned away. I think im some parts of the song she is taking the role of the man, speaking the male parts of the song with a less femine look this then contrasted with her singing her own verses. There is particular attention paid to her mouth with multiple close ups, with the tooth pick and jewel drawing even more attention. I think this makes her seem quite seductive, but she is looking at us at the same another reference to looking. Then as she starts to sing, the focus is on her and her body, she is wearing gold in a black environment making her stand out immediately. There is close ups of her body encouraging the audience to look. There is a crocidicile walking around her, this makes her seem quite dangerous, rebellious and a strong women? The camera movement is like you are actually watching her in the pool as there are lots of angles for example birds eye view , but she continues to look at you as you are watching her. Again there are close up of her body drawing attention to it, this suggests this is the 'ideal' women. The song is still cutting to be beat using spacial editing to flick from space to space. Following convention there is a dance routine, where she is at the front asserting her dominance. She is wearing a gold dress when the dancers are wearing different this makes her the main focal point. The visuals match the lyrics when the noise of a whistle is included in the song, and she pretends she has a whistle as part of the dance routine. She is then inside the car in which was featured earlier but this time in white representing purity and wealth, another genre characteristic. She looks beneath her sunglasses at the audience maintaining that attention and seduction. She then continues to play both the male and female parts of the song, sitting down in the chair with a hard comfortable posture whilst she dances around herself. Obviously filmed separately which does not represent equality between sexs so she is almost mocking that. I love when she slides in front of the chair and then it is actually jay Z sitting there i think that we a clever way to incorporate him. The are then close ups of his and her costume, the trainers he is wearing and the dress in which she is.The effect used is quite surreal when everything is gold again representing wealth, but how much of it she must have to be able to lay in it. The  visuals match the lyrics 'neck tie' tightening the males tie, this asserts her confidence again but is standing behind him.

Rihanna – rude boy

I like the use of colour in this video and how it looks like a moving magazine and this keep occurring. I like how when the action changes it looks like the page is being ripped away I think that is very effective. These two things paired together make it seem quite surreal, and the use of i-stop-motion emphases this. The visuals match the music in this case, with her playing the drums to the music. When the singing starts she is mirrored, with a background that reminds me of Dennis the mennis (intertextual reference) or of someone being hypnotized. There is a lot of close ups of her mouth, and her dancing so we look and focus on those things more than the background. Again it reminds me of being hypnotized with her spinning and doubling with multiple layers. Some of the backgrounds remind of playing a game like Mario bro’s because of how cartoon like it is. Another intextuual reference is to Andy Warhols work, with all the lips in different colours and think it adds to the surrealism. When she is sitting on the lion, so is in control and the dominant one which is weird as to me, lions are the symbol of being strong and powerful, but she turns that onto herself. I like how when she repeats the word ‘want’ it is written like the word POW would be in a cartoon magazine so this is a running theme throughout the music video.  There are close ups or all her body, she is looking at us whilst trying to seduce the person in the video making the audience involved in that seduction. She is obviously lip syncing to the music as she is also performing a dance routine, on green screen as the background is very animated. I like how strong the contrast is between all of the colour, and then she goes to black and white when the bass of the music stops.

Star Persona for music video

The star persona of our artist is going to be similar to the artist of Ellie Goulding the performer and writer of the song ‘Fly’.

She is marketed as a singer songwriter, her music being about music not the materialistic side to selling pop music hence her more alternative pop style.  Her music seems to be aimed at a younger audience and people her own age, as the subject matter seems quiet personal to her. Her music is sold on the quirkiness of her music and appearance, as it is different to more conventional artists who all try to conform to the ideal, whereas Ellie Goulding has the image of being herself and more like the audience she is selling to.

We similarly want to take this persona for our own star as it suits the music and the idea for our video. In the video the video will show her everyday world when she then goes into her dream world.  This expresses how the artist see things which sell the quirky personality side aimed at our target audience (people of the same age who can relate to being different).

 

There are other artists who have similar star personas to Ellie Goulding.  Kate Nash is a good example as like Ellie Goulding her voice and diction is distinct and different from many conventional pop artists. Kate Nash is a singer song writer who writes in a quirky style about herself.  I feel we can take influence with the use of stop motion in foundation (making everyday objects come to life in her world).

The Kate Nash video ‘Pumpkin Soup’ mixes animation with live actions to make it playful. The colours are bright and vibrant which is supposed to reflect her personality as an artist. This is something we want to reciprocate in our video to create the same kind of effect about the star’s persona.

Camera work

Here is a previous students work that inspired us, and we thought about doing something similar to them with the stop motion for example the zoom in and out shots. So we don't have to physically move the camera so we make bigger versions of the print outs that we are going to use in our video. This is easier because we don't have to move the camera around which could change our allingement